Begin didn't back down when peace was possible

8:48 PM,
Aug. 15, 2013

Menachem Begin orates on the parliamentary campaign trail in 1948.

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Menachem Begin was not a man who backed down from his hard beliefs, yet when he finally ascended to the leadership of Israel, he helped forge the first peace in a region that had lived with war for more than a generation.

In his 2007 biography of Begin, Avi Shilon wrote, "He was, and remains, a legend."

Begin was born in Brest, now in Belarus but then a part of the Russian Empire, on Aug. 16, 1913. His father was a timber trader, community leader, ardent Zionist and advocate for the traditional rights accorded to Jews in Brest. ...